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Marvel's Iron Fist

Marvel’s Iron Fist is about to introduce the world to the last Defender, Danny Rand (aka the titular Iron Fist). However, he’s not the only hero fans will meet in this campy series. Game of Thrones alum Jessica Henwick ditches her Sand Snake aesthetic and embraces the trappings of an American martial arts badass named Colleen Wing. The endearing character finds herself caught up in the craziness of Danny Rand’s life just as she’s struggling with her own newfound addiction to the fight.

So who is Colleen Wing? Why does she go by “The Daughter of the Dragon” and what other roles does she have to play in the Marvel Universe? Here’s your quick cheat sheet on all things Colleen Wing.

Who Is Colleen Wing?

In Marvel comic books, Colleen Wing is an accomplished martial artist, trained in the samurai arts. She befriends Iron Fist, aka Danny Rand, in Japan and helps him defeat the Cult of Kara-Kai. Later, she transplanted to New York City where she became friends with Misty Knight. The two eventually became private investigators together and were nicknamed “The Daughters of the Dragon.”

In the new series Marvel’s Iron Fist, we meet Colleen in New York City. She runs a martial arts dojo and teaches self-defense (to the likes of Rosario Dawson‘s Claire Temple). Her path soon becomes intertwined with Danny Rand’s and she eventually helps him in his fight against the Hand. As this is all happening, she finds herself torn between her morals and newfound love of cage-fighting. She’s also a love interest for Danny Rand.

Does she also meet Misty Knight in the Netflix series?

As of right now, I’ve only seen the first six episodes of Marvel’s Iron Fist, so I can’t confirm or deny that the luminous Simone Missick shows up to kick ass next to Colleen in the backend of the series. However, both Missick and Henwick are supposed to reprise their roles in this Fall’s Marvel’s The Defenders.

In the show, Colleen Wing takes on the nickname “Daughter of the Dragon.” Is that a nod to her collaboration with Misty in the comics?

It is indeed! However, the title itself is a kind of nod to another Daughter of the Dragon.

Who’s the original “Daughter of the Dragon?”

That would be Anna May Wong, the first real Chinese-American movie star. She appeared in a pre-code film called Daughter of the Dragon, wherein she played Princess Ling Moy, daughter of Dr. Fu Manchu.

Now, here’s where things get tricky. See, Wong was a brilliant actress who was often turned away from Asian parts in Hollywood in favor of Caucasian actresses like Mary Pickford and Myrna Loy. She was told she didn’t “look the part” of an Asian beauty even though she was one. When she did get cast as her own ethnicity, she was often forced to conform to troubling stereotypes. Daughter of the Dragon is an example of this. She inhabited the “Dragon Lady” role – that is a vampy, “exotic” beauty determined to seduce a man into peril. However, Wong’s performance in this film is considered quite good.

So why would Colleen Wing want to take on this name?

Maybe to reclaim it? Jessica Henwick has spoken out about the fact that she was initially apprehensive about taking on the role of Colleen Wing. Henwick told Collider:

I had some concerns, and Jeph Loeb rang me and he said, “We’re going to take the stereotype, and we’re going to – we’re not going to avoid it, we’re going to inspect it.” For example, she is, I don’t know how many episodes you’ve seen, she’s a martial artist, she fights in fight cages, we’ve seen that before. What happens when you become addicted to that? What happens when you can only talk with your fists and you struggle to communicate on any other level and you’ve become addicted to fighting? So we’ve taken this stereotype and we’ve said, okay, what is the actual realism in it? You know? Which was interesting to me.

The original nickname might have been fraught with the weight of Anna May Wong’s professional struggle, but Henwick really does manage to use it in a subversive, winking way.

Who’s Jessica Henwick? Where have I seen her before?

Jessica Henwick is a British-Asian actress who got her start as a teenager. She starred in the BBC’s Spirit Warriors, a kids show loosely based on Chinese myths. Henwick studied wushu for her role and became the first actress of East Asian descent to topline a BBC series.

More recently, though, Henwick has appeared in Game of Thrones, where she plays Nymeria Sand (aka the Sand Snake with the whip), and Star Wars: The Force Awakens, where she got to play a Resistance pilot in the final battle scene.